Michael Nagler, our founder, and Stephanie Van Hook, our executive director, recently spoke at Google. Hmm… Any guess on what they might have spoke about? You guessed it: They talked about the transformational powers of nonviolence. In his main presentation, Michael outlines the principles of nonviolence and how we can apply them today. He also discusses: how nonviolence has developed since Gandhi and King, the forces impeding the progress of nonviolence currently, how to shift the paradigm so as to release the power of nonviolence, and how to find our unique roles in the process of shifting the paradigm. At the very beginning of his presentation, Michael shares a preview of the documentary we’re working on with Metta friend Lou Zweier (thanks for all your amazing work, Lou!). It’s called The Journey Home, and we think you’re going to love it. Check out Metta’s presentation—and enjoy the preview of The Journey Home.

By Abby Ferber The landscape of organized white supremacy has dramatically changed since I conducted my research for White Man Falling: Race, Gender and White Supremacy in the 1990s. At that time, most organized white supremacist groups were isolated, disconnected, … Continue reading →

By David Cunningham August’s “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, where more than a thousand white nationalist adherents conducted a torch-lit march chanting “white lives matter” and “Jews will not replace us” before provoking widespread street violence the following day, … Continue reading →

By Kim Ebert Many of us were introduced to empirical research on racism through popular psychology, which suggests that racism is an individual-level problem among whites. The idea is that racism stems from prejudice, which is “an antipathy based on … Continue reading →

In our second month discussing the alt-right, we have additional contributors. Donald Trump’s recent rise to power has put a spotlight on what has come to be known as the “alt-right.” Yet the alt-right proceeded the Trump campaign and has, … Continue reading →

Lamisa Mustafa is a Metta Center volunteer and a first-year student at Southern Methodist University, where she is double majoring in Human Rights and Sociology, and minoring in French. She is passionate about the power of narratives in social justice. Through her poetry project Voices of Resilience, she will be creating a print and web-based anthology. Voices of Resilience will celebrate human diversity and the human experience. Lamisa seeks poems on any theme, in any language, and in any style (form, free verse, spoken word). Submissions will be welcomed by new and veteran poets alike. To submit: Email up to 3 poems by December 17, 2017: voicespoems@gmail.com This project began with Lamisa’s participation in the Pangea Network’s Young Women’s Leadership Conference and is funded by the SMU Caswell Leadership Program. Lamisa is a talented poet herself. We recently ran her autobiographical poem “See the Dignity in Them, in Us” at nonviolencemag.org. She’s one to watch! Download the call for submissions flyer

WOMEN OF EVIN:WARD 209

Remember…

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.Martin Luther King, Jr.